The U.S. Department of Labor has given $8 million in grants to two Milwaukee nonprofits to support workforce training programs for technology jobs.
Employ Milwaukee, Inc. — formerly the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board — and UMOS each received $4 million. The money will support IT training for people receiving help from the organizations through the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee’s TechForce Center, which is run with Milwaukee Area Technical College.
In March, the city of Milwaukee was designated one of 15 new TechHire communities by the Obama administration as part of an effort to increase the number of residents employed in the tech industry.
The city’s goal is to train and place 150 individuals in tech jobs by 2017 and 600 by 2020.
Wisconsin ranks 20th in the nation in tech industry employment and added 3,885 jobs in 2015, according to CompTIA’s Cyberstates 2016 report. The state has 97,602 tech industry jobs. Tech wages are 76 percent higher than the average private sector job in Wisconsin, according to the report. The state ranked 37th for tech wages in the country with an average of $77,600.
